Airlines are resuming flights across Atlantic Canada to meet pent-up demand as COVID-19 infections drop and travel restrictions ease. The Halifax Stanfield International Airport had hosted 17 airlines serving 46 destinations prior to the pandemic, but that fell to two airlines serving four destinations because of COVID-19.

Marie Manning, the airport’s vice-president of business development, says the number of domestic flights is starting to increase, and she’s anxious to get some direction from the federal government on international routes.

The Charlottetown Airport was down to just one flight per day for the past year, but officials say they expect that will be up to six or seven flights daily by early August.

Peter Avery, CEO of the airport in St. John’s, N.L., says passenger levels were down 75 per cent in 2020 over 2019, but they have begun to rebound.

Avery, however, says he doesn’t expect a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels until 2024 or 2025.